


Discovered

by AwesomeMango7



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: But all he wanna do is help, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Danny is a little broken rn, Danny is sad, Enemies to Friends, Fighting, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kinda, Maddie and Jack are bad parents, One-Shot, Open Ending, Running Away, Truces, Vlad is good, Vlad is still a Fruit Loop, Vlad sounds like a helicopter mom, badger cereal, but still a little crazy, just a little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:47:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25018747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwesomeMango7/pseuds/AwesomeMango7
Summary: Danny’s parents found out that he’s Phantom. Vlad offers him a place to stay.
Relationships: Badger Cereal - Relationship, Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters
Comments: 20
Kudos: 451





	Discovered

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I've never posted for this fandom. I hope I wrote the character's well! I hope anyone who reads this enjoys!!

“Why do you love her?”

_ “Excuse me?” _

It was late afternoon, and the sun was setting. The sky was a beautiful mix of oranges, yellows, blues, and pinks, and there wasn’t a single cloud. The sight was breathtakingly beautiful. And the only two halfas in existence were admiring it. 

It was by chance that the two of them had met here together. Danny had been patrolling through the park on the lookout for any suspicious ghosts (or, that’s what Vlad assumed he was doing), and Vlad just so happened to take a stroll around the same time. The older man had been stressed lately with work and just needed to relax in nature for a while. The park was pretty vacant at this time of day, so it seemed like a good idea.

He hadn’t expected to find Danny flying around, and the younger halfa hadn’t expected him either. Vlad was about to quip something sarcastic towards the teen, tease and taunt everything he could to rile him up. But there hadn’t been a need for it because Daniel had attacked before he even got a word out. 

Seemed like they were both stressed, and while Vlad was mildly surprised that Danny didn’t follow his moral code of ‘ask first, shoot later’ he was secretly grateful that they could just get down to business. It was usually a fight that Vlad was after anyway. They fought viciously for what felt like hours, but was probably only a handful of minutes, shooting blasts that singed the plants and structures around them. 

They threw punches and kicks and wrestled like their lives depended on it, neither uttering a word besides a muttered curse under their breath. Flashes of neon green, pink, and blue lit up along the ground like fireworks, and the smell of burnt greenery filled the air. 

By the time they wore themselves out, they were left with a destroyed bench, blackened grass in messy splotches all over the ground, a fallen tree, and a swing set that had been entirely encased in ice. That was gonna be all over the news tomorrow. The reporters would just eat that up, making both Danny Phantom’s and Vlad Masters’ lives a living hell for a few days. 

It was his job as mayor to deal with all the messes that Danny created as Phantom. Even if nobody would know that their precious mayor was partly at fault for the park’s destruction, he knew he would still be kind of blamed for being unable to prevent it. 

They both laid flat on their backs, breathing heavily as they tried to catch their breaths after such a vicious fight. They were both bruised and cut up and drained, and the only sound between them was the wheezing gasps they made as their bodies slowly but surely healed themselves. And Vlad had thrived in the silence, feeling the tension in his body leave. It had been relieving to take out his anger and stress, consequences be damned.

They’d both fought so hard they’d been forced back into their human forms, and their clothes were torn and battered. He’d have to get a tailor for his suit, or just straight-up replace it, but damn, had it been worth it. Daniel hadn’t put up that good of a fight in a while. He was usually too distracted, or tired, or emotional. But this time, nothing had been holding him back, and he’d been more of a challenge for Vlad than he’d ever been before. 

Well... at least, without that retched ghostly wail of his. That’s what _always_ got Vlad out of the game. But he hadn’t used it this time, and still, he’d had quite the challenge. And he’d consider this a draw. 

They were in a comfortable silence, now that they had gotten their frustrations out, and Vlad was enjoying it more than he knew he should be. They never really stayed in the same vicinity after a fight, and somehow... it was nice that they were both still here. 

But then Danny had to speak, asking one of the strangest questions. It shattered the illusion of tranquility and peace between them and instantly slammed Vlad back into the frustrating reality he lived in. 

“Why do you _love_ her?” Danny repeated, this time putting emphasis on ‘love.’ He sounded uncharacteristically upset, completely lacking the somewhat playful (and serious) mood he usually seemed to have whenever they fought. Right now, he just seemed distraught. 

Vlad scowled as he stared up at the beautiful sky, his mood souring at the question. “I assume you’re asking why I love your mother? Maddie?”

Danny sighed heavily, throwing an arm over his eyes. “Who else would I be talking about, _Plasmius?”_ He had a slightly bitter tone to his voice. If the boy weren’t so exhausted, Vlad was sure the tone would have been stronger. Daniel always was so petulant. 

Vlad sat up with a groan of pain, stretching out his sore limbs. Danny had really let loose on him this time. Usually, they had some sort of restraint when fighting each other, and that mostly had to do with the fact that they were too busy throwing banter back and forth. This time, however, was different from all the other times they’d fought.

“Why _wouldn’t_ I love her, honestly?” Vlad said, barely managing to hide the awe in his voice. “She is a very intelligent, strong-willed woman with a heart made of pure gold. The only flaw I’ve ever seen in her was when she married your idiot of a father... what she sees in that oaf, I’ll never know.”

Danny scoffed but didn’t make any attempt at protesting. He just laid there, silently. It was yet another uncharacteristic thing for Danny to do. Usually, he was more than happy to argue for the sake of his parents. But tonight, he was silent. 

“Why do you ask, Daniel?” Vlad prompted absentmindedly, brushing some of the dirt from his suit. Yeah, he should really just replace this thing. It was far too ruined. There were even scorch marks along the sleeves, and they hadn’t even fought in their human forms. 

Danny shifted uncomfortably on the grass. “I just don’t understand why you love her...”

It was Vlad’s turn to scoff. “I wouldn’t expect a mere _sixteen-year-old_ to understand the complexities of _love,_ Daniel.”

“That’s not I what I meant, you stupid Fruit Loop!” Danny snapped angrily. “I understand what _love_ is. It’s complicated and strange, and it can hurt you and make you feel wonderful at the same time. I know _that_ much, okay? But I just don’t get how you can... how you can love _her_ like that....” 

The teen trailed off after that, crossing his arms over his chest. The silence stretched on for a while after that as Vlad thought about what Daniel was saying. He couldn’t figure out what had spurred this on, but he was definitely intrigued.

“Care to elaborate, Little Badger?” Vlad asked, looking down at him with a raised brow. He’d never had a conversation like this with the boy, and he hoped it would go on a while longer. He was clearly in distress, and even if they fought like cats and dogs, Vlad still cared about Daniel on some level. He wanted the boy as his son, after all. 

“S-she... she could never love you back,” Danny said, and Vlad was about to protest, but Danny continued talking before he could. “Not all of you, anyway. She _hates_ ghosts so much, Vlad. You have no idea.”

“I’m aware of your mother’s opinion on ghosts, Daniel—“

_“No,_ you aren’t. Not fully, anyway.” Danny cut him off sharply, sending a glare over in Vlad’s direction. His eyes even blazed green with his emotions, despite having pretty much drained his powers. “She tortures ghosts in our basement, Vlad. I didn’t know for a really long time that she was doing this, and... well, she’s killed so many of them, Vlad... s-she killed a few that I knew, too. A few that were friends of mine. I wish I’d known sooner, so I could’ve saved them... but I didn’t _know."_

Vlad felt a pit fall into his stomach at those words, but he pushed it aside. “She just doesn’t know any better, Daniel... I’m sure if she knew that ghosts could feel, she wouldn’t—“

“And how would _you_ know?” Danny snapped at him. “You don’t know _anything,_ Vlad. _Nothing."_

“And you know better than I do?” Vlad asked condescendingly. 

Danny didn’t respond. He just laid there blinking, staring up at the colorful sky with an unreadable expression. 

Vlad scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around then, Daniel.” He said, grunting as he forced his body to stand. He wrapped an arm around his torso where Daniel had punched him particularly hard. He wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few cracked ribs after this, but it was nothing a good night’s rest couldn’t fix. That was one of the best things about being half dead. Aches and pains never lasted for very long with their accelerated healing. 

There was no use staying here if Daniel wasn’t going to tell him why he was acting like this. Vlad was about to walk off when he heard Danny mumble something under his breath. He turned sharply, glaring. “What was that?”

Danny was staring at him, glare slowly falling from his face and turning into something more sullen. “I do know better than you.” He said clearly this time. 

Vlad didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just stared at the younger halfa with confusion. He watched as Danny strained himself to stand, grimacing at the effort. On his feet, Vlad finally got a good look at his human form. He was far more worn down than the fight they just had should have made him. There were dark bags under his eyes that weren’t from any punches; they were from a lack of sleep. Maybe Danny was worse off than Vlad originally thought...

“She _knows_ about me.” Danny said with a haunted tone as he placed a hand over his chest. “About... about me being Phantom.” He took a limping step towards Vlad. “I didn’t tell her, she... she figured it out on her own... she’s smart like that...”

The pit dropped right back into Vlad’s stomach, and suddenly, he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what Danny had to say next. Everything was different now if Danny’s parents knew he was Phantom. Everything would change, and he felt a rising anxiety in his chest. 

“So, yeah... I _do_ know better than you.” Danny said, and Vlad watched in shock as two glowing white rings formed around his waist and separated, transforming him back into his ghost form, which didn’t look much better off than his human form. He was just as beat up and battered, and it was obvious that he was straining himself to maintain this form. “My advice for the future? Never let Maddie Fenton figure out who you are. It won’t end well.”

With that, the teen floated unsteadily into the air and started flying away.

“Daniel!” Vlad called, but the teen didn’t listen, only flying faster. The billionaire cursed under his breath before forcing his own transformation and going after him. “Daniel, get back here this instant!”

Danny ignored him, flying off into the forest. Vlad was lucky it was getting dark, because he could see the teen’s glow, and he followed him intangibly through the trees. He kept his arm wrapped around himself, grunting in pain as he pushed himself forward. Danny might be an insolent brat, but there was no way he was capable of flying around after that fight. Not if Vlad himself was barely managing.

He watched as Danny’s glow flickered in the distance for a moment before it vanished completely. He felt his heart lurch at what that could mean, and he dove down, flying lower as he searched the forest floor. He spotted Danny leaning against a tree in his human form. 

“Daniel!” He called out in a scolding tone as he landed a few feet away, allowing himself to transform back into his human form. He needed to save his power if he was going to get them both somewhere safer. 

Danny looked up at him, tears brimming in his eyes. “W-why are you following me? J-just go away, Vlad... the fight’s over...”

Vlad stumbled towards him, nearly tripping over himself as he leaned against the tree behind Danny. He let himself slide down it, not caring that the bark was digging into his spine. “I’m not here to fight.” He huffed, barely managing not to wheeze. 

That flight had really taken a lot out of him. He was almost glad that— based on how Danny was panting and swaying slightly— the boy was just as tired because of it, too. That’s probably why he’d stopped in the first place. 

“You know...” Danny said, falling to his knees and sitting back on his heels as he breathed heavily. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to fly far, and I was kind of going with the hope that you wouldn’t follow me...”

“You can _not_ just drop something like that on me and then _leave."_ Vlad huffed. He sniffed, feeling something wet leak from his nose. He used the back of his hand to wipe at it and found blood. Well, Danny _had_ punched him in the face a couple of times. “If your mother knows what you are, that involves me, too. Now that she knows halfas _do_ exist, don’t you think she’ll start analyzing every ghost she can to see if there are more?”

Danny shrugged. “Maybe... but my parents don’t have any data on Plasmius. Only theories. They know you exist, and that you overshadowed my dad once. That’s... all they got on you since you’re pretty much impossible for them to catch. I’m pretty sure you’re safe unless they catch you. Which you’re pretty good at avoiding in the first place.”

“What about you, though? What are _you_ going to do?” Vlad scowled at him. 

Danny turned to him with a broken smile on his face, tears still pooling in his eyes. “I’m gonna do whatever the hell I want.”

“What does that even mean?” Vlad asked, trying not to get angry at the boy's total lack of a plan. He should at least have some semblance of an idea for what to do. He was smarter than this. 

Danny looked down. “I don’t know...”

“You _don’t know?"_

Danny glared at him. 

“Daniel, did you really not plan for something like this?” Vlad chastised him incredulously.

“I didn’t think my mom would hate me if she found out!” Danny snapped back at him. “But even so, I’m not fucking stupid! I have an emergency bag stored somewhere with some stuff. I’m just gonna... hang out somewhere. I might go away for a while, but I’ll come back soon. Still need to protect Amity.”

“Come live with me,” Vlad said before he could think better of it. 

Danny scowled at him. “Um, no thanks?”

“You have nowhere else to go.” Vlad tried to reason with him, suddenly determined. It would be perfect if he could get Daniel to come with him in his time of need. Maybe he could show the boy he wasn’t all that bad. “You can’t go to your friends, that’s the first place they’ll look. And there’s nobody else that knows who you are. Come live with _me,_ where nobody will suspect you’ll be and where you won’t have to hide what you are.”

Danny’s scowl hadn’t left his face. “That’s literally the worst idea ever.”

“It’s the only option you’ve got.” Vlad scowled back at him, trying not to feel offended. He would be a /great/ host. He had everything that anyone could ever need in all of his homes. Daniel would be _spoiled_ if he came to live with him. 

Danny snorted. “Between living in your house and being homeless? The latter is _still_ better. You’ve literally tried to ruin my life multiple times. I bet you’re just _rejoicing_ over the fact that I’m homeless and vulnerable right now.”

“You’d _really_ rather be homeless than live in my _mansion?"_ Vlad deadpanned.

“Correction: your mansion is just fine, I’d just rather not live with _you,_ or accept any help from _you,”_ Danny said, wincing as he adjusted himself. “You see where I’m going? _You_ are the problem. Not the house.”

“Yes, and you’ve made that _abundantly_ clear, Daniel.” Vlad rolled his eyes. “But you can’t deny it would be safer. Living on the streets, they could find you at any moment. Who knows what kind of tracking equipment they’ve cooked up? But my home has a field around it that causes most trackers to malfunction, so they wouldn’t be able to find you.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “You really don’t know how to back off, Vlad. It’s like your desperate, like, _all_ the time.”

Vlad scowled at him.

“Don’t look at me like that, you know it’s true,” Danny said, turning away. 

Vlad huffed. “Desperate or not—“

“—Definitely desperate—“

“Desperate _or not,"_ Vlad ground out through clenched teeth. “My home is still safer.”

“How?” Danny asked. “I’m never safe when I’m around you. I’m not safe right now. The only reason we aren’t attacking each other is because we already did that.”

“How does a temporary truce sound to you, Daniel?” Vlad suggested.

Danny’s face soured. “You’re not good at truces, Vlad. You barely manage to get through the Christmas truce every year.”

“But I still _manage,_ don’t I?” Vlad said, posture stiffing slightly in offense. He took a surprising amount of pride in the fact that he could keep up with the Christmas Truce every year. “I’ve never actually violated that truce, and you are well aware of it, my boy. But a simple _Christmas truce,_ on a day of which I spend brooding lonesomely in my home with nobody to celebrate with, I _do_ tend to carry a foul mood. And while I’ve verbally insulted you at the Christmas Truce party, I’ve never _physically_ attacked you. Calling you an insolent brat has never been against the rules, Daniel.”

Danny scoffed. “You just want me to live with you so you can turn me into your evil little henchmen, or son, or whatever...”

“Yes, while that _is_ the end goal,” Vlad drawled sarcastically, because Daniel was starting to become almost too dramatic, even for him. The boy tended to see in black and white when it came to good and bad. There was nothing evil about wishing to train the only other one of his kind. Well, besides maybe the whole renounce your father thing, but still. “I’m offering you a temporary ‘come live with me, no strings attached’ deal. _Obviously,_ you’ve got other things on your mind that doesn’t involve renouncing your father and joining my side.” 

“Aw gee, how considerate, Vlad,” Danny said, sarcasm dripping heavily from his voice as he looked at the man with a blank expression. 

“How about we list some terms and conditions?” Vlad suggested. “Some lines that we can’t cross while you stay.”

Danny’s nose scrunched. “Terms and conditions?”

“Yes,” Vlad nodded. “For instance, at the very least I’d want you to attend meals with me.”

Danny looked away, scowling to himself. “What happens if we don’t follow these ‘terms and conditions’?”

“Then you can leave. I’ll show you exactly how to operate the ghost shields so that you can turn them off if you feel you need to leave.” The older half-ghost told him, trying his best to convince him. Even if Danny was his arch-nemesis, he was still just a kid. And it didn’t feel right for him to just leave Danny hanging after he’d been kicked out of his house because of their shared secret. 

Danny turned his scowl on Vlad, his eyes glancing him up and down like he was trying to spot any tells he might have. Find any evidence that he might be lying. Vlad forced himself to relax his tense shoulders, hoping that it would make him look less threatening. 

“You can’t tell my parents where I am,” Danny said. Before Vlad could agree with him, the boy went on. “You can’t talk to me about renouncing any member of my family, even though they turned on me. You can’t try to train me. Don’t try to make me your evil son. I’ll eat meals with you, but that’s all the socializing that I’ll be required to do. You have to let me leave whenever I want so I can still protect Amity. And you can’t use any of your stupid inventions on me. I already had to deal with too much of that with my parents.”

Vlad decided to ignore that disturbing reveal for the time being. 

“Since you’re adding such a long list, I guess I should as well,” Vlad said, frowning deeply at the boy. “You may not enter my lab. It’s off-limits unless there’s an emergency. No fighting ghosts in my house unless they attacked you first and you have no choice. You may invite your friends, but if they’re rude guests they have to leave. Pick up your messes after you’ve made them, and always tell me when you leave so that if you've been gone too long I know to look for you. Your curfew is ten PM unless you have a ghost-related issue that prevents you from returning.”

Danny was still scowling at Vlad. “Say that, with these terms in conditions in place, I actually come to stay with you. How do I know I can trust you not to betray me? Don’t forget that you’re my enemy, Vlad.”

“You can trust me because your secret is the same as mine. Since you’re revealed now, I’m at risk, too, no matter what you say.” Vlad scowled back at him, offended even though he had no right to be. “Having you in my home, under my protection, will help prevent your parents from figuring you out more, and then figuring me out.”

“But if I’m staying with you and someone finds out, won’t that be suspicious?” Danny asked.

“No,” Vlad shook his head. “Jasmine once came to me because of ‘issues she had at home,’ even though it was actually just her trying to trick me after she figured out my identity. If they figure out you’re staying with me, I’ll just say that you showed up on my doorstep, claiming that you’d been kicked out of the house and needed somewhere to stay.”

“So we’re going with the whole ‘I ran to Uncle Vlad with my tail between my legs’ excuse if my location is ever discovered?” Danny asked flatly. 

Vlad paused for a moment. It sounded like Danny was actually agreeing to this. “If you come live with me, then yes.”

Danny stared at him for a long moment, the lack of trust clear in his eyes. But there was also some sort of desperation and hope in those baby blues. The teen shook his head like he was trying to dismiss some of his thoughts. “Fine, but if you do _anything_ that I don’t like, then I’m leaving immediately, and I won’t be coming back.”

Vlad grinned. “I promise I won’t disappoint, Little Badger.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Please let me know what you think. This is only the second fandom I've written fanfiction for so this is kinda out of my comfort zone.


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